Bhopal GoM to meet on Monday

The Group of Ministers on Bhopal gas tragedy will meet here tomorrow to assess the progress made since the panel handed over its recommendations to the Union Cabinet three months ago.

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ITGD Bureau

New Delhi

September 26, 2010

UPDATED: September 26, 2010 23:07 IST

The Group of Ministers on Bhopal gas tragedy will meet in New Delhi on Monday to assess the progress made since the panel handed over its recommendations to the Union Cabinet three months ago.

Sources in the Government told PTI that the panel headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram will review the progress made by various ministries since June.

In June, the Union Cabinet had accepted all the 22 recommendations of the GoM and decided to push for extradition of former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson and ascertain the liability of Dow Chemicals besides announcing a Rs 1265.56 crore package for relief and remediation.

In August, the CBI had filed a curative petition before the Supreme Court seeking restoration of stringent charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which attracts maximum punishment of ten-year jail term, against the accused in the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy case.

With the government coming under pressure on the issue, a presentation on the new National Litigation Policy is likely to be made before the GoM.

The litigation policy proposes a stringent monitoring and review mechanism for all government litigations so that cases such as the Bhopal gas tragedy are noticed before it is too late.

Under the National Litigation Policy that came into effect from July 1, the government would categorise and group court cases so that those contesting on behalf of the government could prioritise them.

"If this (mechanism) is in place, ultimately, constant review, prioritising and categorisation will track everything.

May be cases like Bhopal will not be repeated in this country.

That is the target of this (policy)," Law Minister M Veerappa Moily had said recently.

Moily had said these systems will be in place so that the delay witnessed in the Bhopal case did not become a norm as "justice delayed is justice buried."